


The Phoenix

by Daretodream66



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Captain America Steve Rogers/Modern Bucky Barnes, F/M, M/M, soul mates, tattooing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-08
Updated: 2019-08-08
Packaged: 2020-08-11 18:29:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20158117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daretodream66/pseuds/Daretodream66
Summary: Soul Mate AU with tattooing.  Steve doesn't think he has a soul mate and Buck doesn't think he'll ever find his.





	The Phoenix

**Author's Note:**

> I saw a prompt on Tumblr and decided to give it a shot. Never written one of these, so it was fun. I haven't read one like this, but if there is anymore out there that has written this type of Soul Mate AU before, I hope this one doesn't suck too bad.

Soul mates were talked about like the Loch Ness Monster. With seven billion people on the planet, the odds of finding a person’s other half was slim at best. When the knowledge that life on other planets was not just a belief, but a fact, it became even harder. What if a person’s soul mate wasn’t even from Earth? I mean how unfair would that be? When the internet became a thing, people started setting up message boards for finding soul mates. For a few years, there was an upsurge in soul bondings, but that too began to dwindle. For some it was just felt hopelessness, for others it was just too much trouble. That didn’t stop some from continuing to romanticize them.

The day that Becca came home, two days after heading out to the library for a study session, and had discovered her soul mate in a coffee shop, Bucky resigned himself to being alone. She’d been gone for those two days, but at 20 he didn’t worry about his sister. Sometimes she got caught up in studying and just forgot to call him. He decided that if she could meet hers in something as cliché as a coffee shop, there wasn’t much hope him. Not that anyone could see his mark anymore. It was long gone, erased by scars.

Becca had always had a bit of a charmed life anyway. She and Bucky, having survived the car crash that took their parents, and Becca coming out of it without a scratch, it was just the way of things. Unfortunately, Bucky wasn’t so lucky. He didn’t resent her for that, he was glad that he’d taken the injury and not her. She’d admitted only once how guilty she felt about that, but he’d made her understand.

_Cuddled up on the bed with Becca, Bucky finished the novel they’d been reading for the last month. When he looked down, she was crying. “Becs, honey, what’s the matter?”_

_Brushing her hair away from her face, he kisses her forehead. “I’m sorry.”_

_It had been a little over a year since the accident, but with surgeries and grafts, Bucky still had bandages covering his arm. “What are you sorry for?”_

_She reached out, lightly touching his arm. “That you have to go through this and I didn’t get hurt.”_

_He scooched down in the bed and pulls her against him, her head resting on his chest. “I want you to listen to me. I wouldn’t change anything about this.” She starts to speak. “No now, listen. It’s just you and me kiddo and a few surgeries and bandages don’t mean anything. What means something is that we’re here and you’re healthy. I think I’m pretty lucky to have you and I want you whole and happy. I know we’re still working out the happy part, but we’ll get there.”_

_“But your soul mark…”_

_“What do I want with a soul mark, Becs? I have you.” He couldn’t tell her how much he wanted a soul mate. How much he needed to believe that someone out there would love him no matter what he saw when he looked in the mirror. How much he longed for a soul mate._

Bucky moved through life not thinking about soul mates after awhile. He used to, oh how he used to, but at 33 he has no use for childhood ideas. He goes to work, he goes home and fixes dinner for himself, and cuddles up with a good book until he falls asleep. Becca’s married now, to her soul mate and Bucky lives in an apartment that’s too big for just him. He’s thinking about getting a cat. Then he can be the crazy guy with the cat.

Once home, he pulls the glove from his hand, placing it on the table by the door. He doesn’t leave without covering that part of himself; always long sleeves and the glove. He asked _his_ doctor about tattooing his arm and was given the go ahead. Starting this weekend, he’s going to start the long process, with a specially chosen artist. The sleeve will cover his entire arm from shoulder to the second knuckle of his fingers. The whole process will take months to complete, but he’s willing to put in the time and money. It will never bring his soul mark back, but it will give him a piece of himself back.

Tony looks over the file and frowns. It’s not the first time he’s looked through it and it probably won’t be the last. When SHIELD fell, he started going through files that he thought might be important, but when he came to Steve’s file, some information put in by Fury, some by Romanov, and some by Hydra operatives, he was baffled. Now, in 2019, he’s not sure what to do with this information. He goes back to it over and over, trying to make sense of what he reads.

The team comes in, looking half asleep, except for Steve, who looks like he just came back from a run. Almost like he can feel Tony’s eyes on him, he turns after getting his coffee. “Tony?”

Tony shakes his head and leaves the room. Everyone looks after him then look around at each other, confused. Not one to be put off, Steve goes to find him later. He’s musing over something on his tablet when Steve enters the lab. As though he knew that Steve would eventually come, he looks up and smirks. Contrary to what most people would say about Tony, there are certain things he doesn’t joke about, isn’t crass about and soul marks are one of them because he knows how lucky he is. “Want to tell me what that was about earlier?”

“I don’t…no…but I…” Tony looks up taking his glasses off. “Steve, I want to ask you about something, but I’m not sure how.”

Steve sits down, curious now. “You never call me Steve. This must be serious.”

Tony chuckles. “I don’t know how to be touchy, feely. It’s just not me, but this is a touchy subject.”

“What is?”

Tony looks away then back at his friend. “Soul marks.”

Steve huffs with a smile. “Oh…that.”

Frustration is not something that Tony likes to feel. “Yes that!” He paces around and Steve just watches him. “I guess I thought that you had one, somewhere…” He waves his hand indicating all of Steve. “But apparently you don’t and here I was thinking you were my Aunt Peggy’s soul mate and that’s a lie…”

Steve stands, taking Tony’s shoulders. “Tony, it’s okay. No, Peg and I were never soul mates. Even before, when I still had one, hers didn’t match. But after the serum, it just disappeared. The scientists didn’t have any idea why it went away, but I guess it’s for the best. I mean, think about it, if I’d had one, then put the plane down…”

Tony sniffles. “Yeah, I guess, but it’s not fair.” His voice gets low and he pokes Steve in the chest. “If anyone deserves to have one, it’s you.”

“Well, it’s not like there’s another Pepper out there somewhere and what other woman would really be worth it?” Tony snorts, causing Steve to laugh.

“You stay away from my wife, Rogers.” Steve accepted all of this a long time ago and doesn’t really think about it anymore. When it first happened, sure, but after that, it just was the way of his world.

“Well you can’t blame me for having high standards after meeting Pepper.” Tony looks down at the floor. “And in my way of thinking, _you_ deserve all the happiness this world has to offer.” Tony blushes and wants to say something, anything, but he doesn’t have a chance. Steve’s gone before he can come up with a response.

April 26, 2019, 10:15AM Bucky sits down in the artists chair as he starts the process. He had to find a different way to put the pattern on Bucky’s arm because of the scarring. So, he’s freehand drawing it and today he’s doing the shoulder section. Once the drawing part is done, he checks in with Bucky. “You sure you’re ready for this?”

“Man, I’ve been ready for this for years.” When the needle hits his skin, Bucky tenses, then relaxes back into the chair.

April 26, 2019, 10:55AM Steve nearly jumps out of his chair in the briefing. Everyone watches in complete shock as Steve pulls his shirt over his head. He reaches for his shoulder in pain when Tony comes over. “Cap? Steve? What’s going on?” Steve moves his hand aside and he and the rest of the room watch black lines being drawn into Steve’s skin. Tony rips his glasses off his face. “What the hell?”

It’s nearly 3 when the lines stop and Steve is breathing heavily. Tony has JARVIS record the whole process and calls Dr. Cho to help Bruce try and make sense of the situation. They all expect it to fade, due to the serum, but by that night, when Steve goes to bed, it’s still there. He wakes the next morning and it’s still there. He looks at it critically, with an artist’s eye, and appreciates the aesthetic of the lines, shadows, and colors. He just doesn’t understand the how.

It isn’t Tony that figures it out. It isn’t Bruce that figures it out. It isn’t Helen that figures it out. It’s Pepper. It’s been five days and she’s been hanging back with the information because Pepper doesn’t know how welcome it will be. But Tony is talking about it being some kind of attack and is losing sleep over it, so she takes in a heavy breath and walks into the common room.

She walks over to the table, where the Avengers are eating lunch and puts two pictures on the table. Tony looks at them, picks them up, and then looks at Pepper. “Pep, what are these?”

She looks at Steve. “Those are my grandparents.” That’s when Tony sees it. 

“JARVIS scan the pictures.” Tony takes his glasses off, squints and puts them back on. “Is that what I think it is?” Pepper nods. “You knew?”

She nods again. “I try not to get involved with Avenger business, so I kept my mouth shut. But this isn’t really Avenger business, this is Steve business and Steve’s a friend.” She looks at Steve. “I’m sorry I didn’t come to you sooner.”

Steve looks confused, like a golden retriever that lost its favorite ball. “I don’t…what’s going on.”

“J, bring the scans up on screen and enlarge quadrant four on both.”

‘Of course, sir.’

The pictures come up and seven pair of eyes grow huge. “What the hell?” Clint climbs up on the table, sitting cross legged. “Why would your grandparents get matching tattoos?”

Pepper huffs. “They didn’t.” Everyone looks up at her. “My grandfather was in the navy and got it when he was on leave. It showed up on my grandmother’s arm at the same time.” She looks at Steve. “When one soul mate gets something permanent done to their skin, like tattooing, it shows up on the other one.” She smiles in a melancholy kind of way. “My grandmother was mortified and my grandfather spent the rest of his life apologizing.”

Steve shakes his head. “Wait…are you…does this…”

Pepper hugs him. “It means you have a soul mate, mark or not. They’re out there somewhere and apparently don’t know what tattooing means.” Then she looks up at Steve. “Or they don’t think they have a soul mate.”

Three weeks later, Bucky returns for the next section of his tattoo. It’s weird, but it healed quicker than he thought it would. When he called the artist, he’d said that it might have something to do with the scars. Bucky shrugged it off and just enjoyed the new design. The artist spends almost an hour drawing the design onto Bucky’s bicep then takes the needle in hand.

The Avengers are called away on a mission. They’re in the middle of a pretty intense fire fight, when Cap cries out in unexpected pain. “Cap?” There’s not an answer because when Steve cried out, six of the bad guys went after him thinking he was injured. “STEVE?”

The sixth guy falls and Steve stands. “I’m here. I’m okay. Just think my soul mate is having more of the tattoo done.”

“Jesus, we got to find this person and get them to be a little more careful about when they do this.” The surprising thing to Tony is that Steve has made no move to try and find out who his soul mate is. Something about it is bugging the genius, but Pepper made it very clear to leave this alone. She said that Steve needs to be ready for it because once they meet and touch, walking away won’t be an option. Which again, Tony doesn’t understand. Why wouldn’t he want that?

Steve doesn’t check his arm until they are home and he’s showered. Then he inspects the new work. It went on for hours, like the first time, and Steve is left with a beautiful, colorful, intimate design on his shoulder and bicep. He suspects that it isn’t over because he can see that the lines are unfinished. He’s going to have to be careful about what he wears. This could get really complicated really fast if the wrong person gets a picture.

After studying the tattoo for a few days, there are certain things he can glean from the design. Things he knows in his soul are true. It isn’t until weeks later, late one night, when he can’t sleep, Steve sits with Natasha. The lights are off on the common floor and they’ve moved a sofa to the windows. Sitting, legs pulled up, and cupping mugs of hot chocolate, Natasha asks. “What do you think of the tattoo?”

Steve stares out into the city, never taking his eyes off the lights. “It’s a man.”

Natasha looks at him surprised and even without looking at her, Steve knows she’s trying to judge the situation. “Is that a problem? Your soul mate being a man, I mean.”

Steve takes a sip of the hot chocolate. “It’s never been a problem for me, but there are other’s that will have issues with it.” He finally looks over at her. She’s turned toward him with her head resting on the back of the sofa. “I don’t know that I want to do that to him.”

“Are you protecting him or yourself?” Steve huffs a quiet laugh.

“Both I suppose. I accepted a long time ago that I didn’t have a soul mate then this happens and I’m not sure I want that life anymore.” He sits his mug on the floor, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. “The guy that wanted all that went into the ice over 70 years ago. I don’t really know who came out.”

She places her mug on the floor and scoots down the sofa, pulling Steve into an awkward hug. “I think we all want that, we just don’t like to admit it to ourselves.” She turns him to face her, cupping his face, gently. “Don’t deny yourself something that will make you happy just because some asshat in Washington thinks is wrong. Your family will always support and protect you. You find him, he’s part of us and we’ll protect you both.”

He pulls her against him and they sit the rest of the night watching the city come back to life in the early morning light.

June 8th, 2PM, Bucky sits in the chair waiting for the consistent buzz of the needle to start. The forearm design is drawn and Bucky smiles. This is almost finished. Two weeks after this he’ll return for the hand to be done and somehow he knows he’ll feel mostly whole. He accepted his injuries a long time ago, but never felt like himself. With the art, he feels like himself again, like he’s taken back that part that the accident took away. He’s sent pictures to Becca and John of the work and they both love what he’s doing.

The buzzing starts and it makes everything fade into the background. He listens to the buzz and feels the slight prick as it moves across his skin. It’s hypnotic and Bucky lets himself sink into it. Hours pass, but for Bucky it feels like minutes. The artist looks at the piece, almost finished and smiles. Bucky goes to the mirror and examines the color. It’s everything he hoped for, but didn’t think he’d get.

Later that night after he showers he takes a picture of the arm and sends it off to Becca and John. The text he gets back makes him laugh.

_‘When this is done completely, I’m posting it on the internet! It’s amazing!’_

Bucky snorts and goes to get something to eat.

Steve sits with Clint and Natasha as they watch the lines form on his arm. Lines connect to previous designs and Steve is mesmerized by what the whole piece is going to be. It’s hours of watching in anticipation for Steve. Clint fixes snacks and before the lines are finished the whole team is sitting with their Captain, watching. Every now and then, one of them will gasp at a turn of the design or a detail that especially fluid. He doesn’t have to tell his team that he’s come to love the tattoo. Normally, it wouldn’t stay because of the serum, but because it’s his soul mate doing it, not even the serum can undo what’s being done. 

Now that the forearm is finished, he can tell that it’s a phoenix, rising from the ash, which he assumes will be on the hand. What he doesn’t want to do anymore is cover it. Something about it feels freeing and he makes the decision, in that moment, to not censor this art. Instead of wearing sleeves to cover it, he’s going to show this off once it’s done. He looks up at Natasha and she sees his decision reflected in his eyes.

“I think there’s a message here. I think he’s trying to say something through this tattoo.” Steve nods and Clint backs up.

“He?” It’s the first time that Steve and Natasha have said it in front of anyone else on the team.

Steve looks up at the archer and his friend. “Yeah, he.” Clint nods and grins.

“What do you think he’s trying to say?” Natasha has her own ideas, but wants to hear Steve’s.

“Obviously, he doesn’t know that it’s coming up on anyone else’s skin, so I think he’s taking back part of himself that he thought he lost.” She nods because that was her thought too. Steve gets a faraway look in his eyes and starts talking again. “Maybe he’s giving me something back even if he doesn’t know.”

Two weeks later, on their way to Eastern Europe, Steve feels the telltale prick of the tattoo. Pulling his fingerless gloves from his left hand and pulling up the sleeve of his stealth suit, he watches as the tattoo is being finished. Thor comes to watch as the lines and colors appear, keeping a steadying hand on his Captain’s shoulder. “It is a truly impressive piece of art.”

Steve stays silent, but nods his agreement. Tony sets the autopilot and the team watches as talons extend down Steve’s fingers with smoky ash around them. “Cap…Steve, we have to find this guy.”

Tears gather in Steve’s eyes as he looks at his team. Is it possible to love someone that he’s never met? When he looks at the tattoo all he feels is the overwhelming need to find him and wrap him up in the safety of his arms. “When we get home.” They look at each other and everyone knows that when they return home, Steve’s life is going to be vastly different from what he’s used to. 

That would have been the defining moment, but the terrorists are better prepared than the Avengers believed. They win the fight, but Steve goes down. He’d gone to aid a civilian and taken a blast to the chest. On the flight home, he takes Natasha’s hand. “Promise me.”

Clint is doing triage and she takes Steve’s left hand. “Anything.” She looks up at Clint, who shakes his head. 

“Don’t find him. Don’t tell him. Let him live his life without knowing.” Never having been emotional in front of anyone except Clint, she starts to cry, clinging to the hand of her leader and friend. “Promise.”

Tony is flying at a speed that the jet isn’t normally equipped to go, but they all know that this isn’t going to end well and none of them know how to deal with that. The blast to Steve’s chest is too severe for his healing to keep up with. Tony turns in his seat making eye contact with each of his teammates. Natasha rests her head on Steve’s hand clasping her own. “I promise.” But she’s not sure if she can keep it. If they lose Steve, this unknown man will be their only connection to their lost friend.

Bucky sits in bed, watching a video of his niece with Becca. Good as her word, when the tattoo had been finished, she had posted it on all of her social media, telling the internet how awesome her brother’s new tattoo is. Winnie, his niece, waves at the camera and Bucky stops himself from waving back. It’s a video, but his instinct is to say hi. 

He’s wound up from his last group session earlier in the evening, so the banging on his door has him jumping and checking the time. It’s nearing 2AM, so his first instinct is fear, but then again, if it was someone trying to break in, they probably wouldn’t knock. He goes to the door and checks through the peep hole. And what he sees is definitely not what he expects. 

After landing, Steve was wheeled away with Dr. Cho screaming orders at everyone. The rest of the team was checked over, but while the nurses did their job, Natasha did hers. She’d had JARVIS search for any way to identify the man with the tattoo. It had taken next to no time for JARVIS to find the picture posted by a Rebecca Proctor and trace it to her brother, Dr. James B. Barnes.

When the door opens, Natasha smiles warmly. James B. Barnes is…in a word…beautiful even to her discerning eye. He’s perfect for Steve with intense, warm eyes. Everything she read about him makes him a survivor; a good, decent man. Raising his sister after their parents died. Putting himself through college while raising her. Giving everything to people that suffer traumas like his. He’s perfect and also staring at them like he’s fearing for his life.

Bucky isn’t expecting two of the six Avengers to be standing at his door in the middle of the night. Thor is bigger than he thought and Black Widow isn’t ever pictured smiling like that. “Mr. Barnes…James, can I call you James? We need you to come with us.” They give him enough time to grab a jacket, keys, and phone and then drag him from the building.

There’s a jet in the middle of the street, blocking everything. They don’t seem to care and drag Bucky aboard and Natasha starts the take off. All the while spilling an insane story about his tattoo and Captain America. He’s being kidnapped by the Avengers is what he decides. He’s being kidnapped. He needs to text his sister and tell her. As they land on the roof of Avengers Tower, he thinks that maybe he’s dreaming. He actually fell asleep while watching that video and he’s dreaming. He’s never eating Thai that close to bedtime again.

They exit the lift into a waiting area filled with...more Avengers and a tall woman with strawberry, blond hair. He’s being pushed and pulled into scrubs, a surgical hat and mask. Tony Stark, the Tony Stark, is talking a mile a minute, then finally makes eye contact with Bucky. He puts something into Bucky’s ear. “You know what happens when you touch your soul mate?”

Bucky just nods because what else is he going to do. The strawberry blond shoos the others away, taking Bucky’s hands. “Mr. Barnes, I know this is a lot to take in, but Steve needs you. All you have to do is go in and hold his hand. Please…please…” She starts to cry and Bucky realizes that this is Pepper Potts-Stark.

He doesn’t know why, but he doesn’t want to disappoint her, so he nods and is pushed through doors where a nurse is waiting. “Okay Mr. Barnes, we’ve set up a chair next to Captain Rogers. All you have to do is hold his hand.”

He’s taken into an OR and she guides him to the chair. There’s a screen blocking his view of Captain America’s chest and while a doctor works Bucky sits in the chair. Looking down, he sees a mirror of his own tattoo. With shaking hands, he reaches for the Captain’s hand. Taking it, a bright light consumes his vision. His mind goes offline and the only thing he can be sure of is Steve. Dear god, he has a soul mate.

“Doctor his vitals are coming back!” The doctor starts working at a furious pace.

Bucky leans in, kissing his soul mate’s hand and thinks. “Don’t leave me now, Stevie.” The doctor smiles behind her mask as this stranger lays his forehead on their joined hands.

Normally, soul mates are left alone for a time to complete the bond, so when the Avengers start firing questions that Bucky can hear in his earpiece, he’s unable to communicate with them. His mind is filled with Steve. Steve who was so close to death. Steve who can’t speak for them. So, the doctor, who seems to understand his state, nods at one of the nurses.

The man reaches over, pulling the earwig out of Bucky’s ear and bringing it to the doctor. She nods again and nurse puts it in her ear. “For those of you that understand how the bonding works, you know he is unable to speak to you right now. It did work and I’ll be able to close Captain Rogers up within the hour.”

Bucky wakes, still holding Steve’s hand, but in a bed that he doesn’t remember being moved to. He looks up and Steve is resting, bandages over his chest, but a small smile playing on his lips. “He’s been smiling like that since they closed him up. I think he knows you’re here.” Hawkeye is smiling gently at him.

Looking over Steve, Bucky sees Black Widow and Hawkeye watching him. “I promised him that I wouldn’t come find you. He thought…” Widow looks heartbroken. “We thought he was going to die and he didn’t want me finding you and telling you in case he…”

Bucky leans up, but still clinging to Steve’s hand. Hawkeye watches his movements while patting Natasha’s shoulder. “We had to take a chance that the bond would save him.”

The door opens and the rest of the Avengers and Pepper walk in. Everyone seems to be breathing easier. “Well now, doesn’t this look cozy.” Pepper smacks Tony in the head. “What? I’m stating a fact.”

Bruce checks Steve’s chart and looks at Bucky. “He should be waking up in a few hours. Once the surgery was done, his healing kicked in. He won’t be 100% for a week or so, but he’ll be awake.”

Thor comes over to the bed, sitting in the chair. “We are lucky that we found you. This would have been much worse had we not.”

Pepper comes and sits on the edge of the bed. “Mr. Barnes, I know how scary this is. I live with it every day. Being bonded to an Avenger is…well, it’s difficult.” Tony come over, kissing her forehead. “But it’s worth it when they come home safe and shut the world out for you. Please give all of this a chance.”

For the first time, Bucky opens his mouth to speak. “How could I not?” She smiles and ushers all of the others out of the room.

He looks down at Steve Rogers and smiles. How could he not, indeed. He pulls their joined hands up to his chest and settles on his side to watch Steve sleep. Before he knows it, he’s fallen asleep.

He wakes later to the feel of something lightly brushing his lips. Eyes fluttering open, he looks into intense blue eyes smiling back at him. He stretches his legs out, pointing his toes to stretch and smiles back at blue eyes. “Hi.”

Steve chuckles. “Hi.” He reaches over, brushing Bucky’s hair from his face. “How did you get here and not to seem rude because I’d never want to do that to you, but what’s your name?”

Bucky reaches up, caressing Steve’s cheek with the hand that isn’t still clinging to him. “I’m Bucky and your friends came and got me.”

It’s obvious to Steve, who woke up with a strikingly, beautiful man in the bed with him that their bond is settled into place meaning Bucky went through that process with him unconscious. “I’m sorry you had to go through the bonding alone and it’s really nice to meet you.”

“I wasn’t alone. You were here, just, you know, out of it.” Steve chuckles and Bucky lights up at the sound. “You have a nice laugh.”

Leaning in, Steve kissing him again. “You have a nice everything.” It’s Bucky turn to burst with laughter. Steve knows he’ll never tire of that sound. 

“Are you hungry or thirsty?” Bucky sits up, looking at the table, but there’s nothing there to drink. “I’ll need to go get something.”

Steve pulls him back down, lays on his back and pulls Bucky to lay his head on his shoulder. “You aren’t going anywhere.” Steve presses a button and the door opens a few minutes later.

“Well Captain Rogers, it’s nice to have you back.” Dr. Cho gives him a quick once over. “You’ll need to allow a few weeks of down time to heal completely. Before that would be a challenge, but I’m betting you don’t feel the need to rush back into battle anytime soon.”

Steve blushes. “I think I can find things to do.” She laughs and head to the door.

“I believe your teammates are headed up with food.” She gives one last serious look. “Do not do anything too taxing.”

Both men blush. Bucky turns his eyes up to Steve’s. “Your team was worried about you.”

“They’re good people and we care about each other. You’re part of that now. I hope you’re ready for it.” As if on cue, the door bursts open and six people come in carrying enough food to feed an army or seven people and a super soldier.

“We come bearing gifts. Okay, not gifts, but food and it’s the same thing.” Steve raises the bed only wincing a little.

“Are you okay?” Bucky sits up quickly, touching Steve’s chest. He starts to climb off the bed, but Steve won’t let him go.

“Don’t leave.” Steve scoots over and makes room.

“Dear god the heart eyes are going to kill us all.” Natasha sounds serious, but her eyes are full of mischief.

“Get used to it, Romanov. Look at him. He’s beautiful.” Bucky blushes so deeply he almost covers his face with his hands, but Steve still has one of them so he can’t.

“I would criticize, but I remember how I was when I met Pepper and I have no room to talk.” Tony pulls more chairs over.

“I can’t say that I wasn’t just as bad. I think Laura could have asked for the moon and I would have found a way to go get it.” Clint props his legs up on the bed. 

Thor flops into a chair next to the bed. “We do not have these soul marks on Asgard, but when I met Lady Jane, I can say that she had my heart in her hands for weeks. It was an all consuming sensation.”

“Then I would say that you know exactly what soul marks are like.” Tony looks up at Steve. “It’s still interesting that you don’t actually have one. I would really like to understand how this all happened.”

Bucky looks at Steve. “What does he mean? You don’t have a soul mark under the tattoo?”

Steve shakes his head. “When they gave me the serum it went away. I thought it meant I didn’t have a soul mate anymore.”

“Do you remember what it looked like before it went away?” Steve nods. “Is there paper and something to write with?” Natasha opens a drawer and pulls out what he needs, handing it over. Steve looks down at their still joined hands and they finally release each other. He draws out what the mark used to look like. He’ll never forget it. The more he draws, the stranger the sensation becomes. Bucky leans over, looking at what’s on the paper. Their eyes meet and Bucky’s smiling softly. “It looked like this. Is this what yours looked like?”

Bucky leans in kissing him. “It’s where the idea for the tattoo came from.” Natasha picks up the paper and looks at it. She picks up the pen and connects the lines. Holding it so everyone else can see. It’s a phoenix.

_Five Months Later_

Tony and Pepper’s wedding had been a media circus. It wasn’t just that Tony Stark was getting married, but also that they were soul mates. Clint and Laura Barton had been able to quietly get married because the town they lived in was small and very few knew what his job entailed, but once people found out, when the Avengers formed, they became the talk of the town. People showing up at the farm to try and get pictures. That’s when Clint bought the new place with even fewer neighbors.

Captain America was able to keep the soul mate thing under wraps for about four months. Then someone got a picture of Steve and Bucky in Prospect Park, with their new dog, and their arms were uncovered because of the heat. Speculation started slowly, but once it took off and someone made the connection between soul mates and tattoos all hell broke loose. Steve was bombarded with requests for interviews and Bucky caught people taking his picture while he was grocery shopping or getting coffee.

So, for weeks it was almost impossible to go anywhere and do anything because they were hounded. It came to a head during the fifth month when a reporter, posing as a patient, got into one of Bucky’s support groups. At first he just sat, listening to the other people. At the end, just as everyone was about to close out and say their goodbyes, the reporter asked Bucky about his tattoo. The whole group stood to protect their therapist and friend.

Then, the door opened and Steve came in. He recognized the man from press conferences at the Tower and escorted the man out with a serious warning about the meeting and what he heard. Steve promised him that if anything he heard ended up in a column or on social media that he would be sued to the degree of ruining his career. Steve put a statement out the two days later after talking to Bucky about it. It was time to head this off.

Bucky stood back stage, watching the love of a lifetime, stand up for what is appropriate and against what is unprofessional. Steve is everything he’d ever dreamed about as a kid and never thought he would have once his parents died.

Steve stands facing the crowd of reporters who are barking questions faster than he can answer. Instead of trying to quiet them, he lets them scream at him until he gets tired of it and starts off the stage. The reporters start to quiet down when one, a woman that Steve has no respect for, calls snidely.

“You aren’t even going to try to defend yourself, Captain?”

Steve smirks and walks back to the podium. “Well ma’am, if you vultures would stop yelling long enough, I do actually have something to say, but it’s not my job to try to talk over you. If you’re willing to shut up long enough to listen, then sure, I’ve got something to say, but I don’t have _anything_ to defend.”

She sneers at him, but doesn’t say anything else. She’s just been called out by Captain America and even if she doesn’t care what he has to say, the rest of the room seems to and keeps quiet. Steve appears calm, but inside he’s anything but.

“Yesterday one of you, under false pretenses, went into a group session that my soul mate was running. Listening to people who have suffered traumas worse than anything any of you could understand. You have a job, I get that, but so does he and you went too far.”

A man in the back calls out. “That was one, not all of us.”

“But what I’m seeing in this room, it’s just because you didn’t think of it first. I normally try to keep an open mind, but too far is too far and if he had printed anything he’d heard, those people would never have trusted my soul mate again.” Steve looks over to Bucky, standing just outside of their line of sight. “Yes, I have a soul mate. Yes, I was lucky enough to find him and yes, I plan on marrying him as soon as possible.” Steve looks back over at Bucky. “I also have to ask him properly first.” Bucky has tears in his eyes and feels an arm go around his shoulder from one side and a head lean on his shoulder from the other. He looks to find Thor on one side and Natasha on the other. Behind him, he feels the rest of the crazy family he’s grown to love. “This is the one and only time I will answer questions about my personal life and then you will all back off unless you want to lose access to the Avengers permanently. 

“You don’t have the authority to do that.” It’s from the same woman from before.

Pepper walks out on stage, leaning into the mike. “He does have that authority given to him by me. Watch your tone or you lose it right now.” The woman cowers at Pepper’s words. She nods at Steve and walks off the stage.

“About eight months ago a tattoo started showing up on my shoulder and arm. I didn’t understand it because I didn’t know what it meant. Before I took the serum I had a soul mark, but after the serum it disappeared. The doctors couldn’t tell me why and I and they assumed it meant I didn’t have a soul mate anymore. I got used to the idea. Then the tattoo happened and with the help of a friend, I came to understand what it meant. During a mission about six months ago I was fatally injured.” The reporters clamor for explanation. Steve raises his hands and they quiet down. “The team and Dr. Cho knew that I wasn’t going to survive, but because of my family, my soul mate saved me by completing the bond. I didn’t know him then and he had to go through the bonding with me unconscious. By the time I woke up, it was done and I couldn’t have been happier.” Steve looks back off stage at Bucky. “I don’t know that I’ve been happier in my entire life.”

Surprisingly, Bucky comes out on stage and Steve wraps an arm around him. “This is Dr. James Barnes. He’s the reason I’m still alive. He’s everything I never knew I needed, but everything I ever wanted.” Steve’s eyes haven’t left Bucky’s.

The hands go up and Steve looks to Pepper. She comes out on stage again and starts calling out names. “Captain, what does your team think about all of this?”

Steve snorts. “My team is the one that found him and brought him to save me, so I’d say they are very happy and supportive.”

“Doctor Barnes, did you know or even suspect that Captain Rogers was your soul mate?”

Bucky didn’t expect to have to answer any questions, but he steps up to the mike. “The thing is, I didn’t think I would have a soul mate. When I was 18 I was in an accident and my parents were killed. My soul mark was on my left arm. I couldn’t even see it anymore. It’s why I got the tattoo.”

“Doctor Barnes, what was your first thought when you saw Captain Rogers?”

Bucky laughs and Steve watches him captivated. “My first thought was ‘don’t leave me now, Stevie.’”

The reporters seem charmed by Bucky, but the questions come back to Steve. “Captain Rogers, how do you feel about your soul mate being male?” Steve frowns at the reporter who tries to backtrack. “I mean, you had a thing with Peggy Carter didn’t you?”

“First, she would be Agent Carter or Ms. Carter to you. Don’t talk about her like you knew her. Second, no Agent Carter and I did not have a ‘thing’ as you call it. She and I were friends, she was probably my best friend, but she had a soul mark and even before mine disappeared, they didn’t match.”

“Captain Rogers, when are you and Dr. Barnes getting married?”

Bucky smirks at Steve. “Yeah, Captain, when are we getting married?” The reporters and the Avengers snicker.

Pepper calls the press conference complete and the reporters vacate the room to hurriedly file their stories. Back stage, the team watches the way Steve looks at Bucky, enamored in a way that he hasn’t been since discovering art. There’s much grinning and prodding from his friends when Steve finally sighs.

“Okay, now I’m feeling ganged up on.” Bucky raises an eyebrow in challenge. “Fine, you want to play it that way.” He looks over at his teammates, who are all grinning. “Tony? You got it?”

Tony comes bounding over, digging in his pocket. “I’m on it.” He hands something over to Steve, who then pulls Bucky to the side. The Avengers surround them with phones out and grins.

Steve takes Bucky’s hands and kneels down. “Steve, what are you doing?”

“You know I don’t back down from fights, Buck, so this one is on you.” He takes the ring that he designed and Tony made and holds it up. “James Barnes, you are everything I ever wanted and never thought I would have. You saved my life, but every day you are with me, you save me all over again. I want to spend my life showing you what that means to me. You hold my heart and soul in your hands and now I’m asking you to take my body too. Will you marry me, Buck?”

Bucky kneels down as Steve slips the ring on. “You never had to ask. Everything with you is always yes.” They stand together and Steve kisses him lightly.

Tony snorts. “What kind of kiss is that?”

Steve grins. “That’s the ‘safe for family’ kiss. I’ll give him the other one when we’re alone.”

Bucky looks down at the ring and smiles softy. “It’s beautiful, Steve.”

Steve reaches over, caressing his cheek with the pad of his thumb. “Just like the man wearing it.”

The Avengers plus Pepper, Becca, John, Winnie, and Bucky leave New York City and head upstate. The press tries to find out why and the government tries to stop them, but Tony laughs at Ross and tells him to pretend he’s human for a change. The property, belonging to Tony and Pepper, is in the middle of nowhere with no one around. It’s a large cabin, but nothing about it says opulent. Inside is a simple décor with a warm, homey feel. There are three bedrooms upstairs and one down. The kitchen, dining, and living rooms are open to each other and the deck off the back has a fire pit, just right for cool nights.

Surrounding the bigger cabin are three smaller ones, just right for guests. “What is this place, Tony?” Steve looks over the grounds and the lake.

“This is a little place that Pepper and I like to call home.” Steve looks at him surprised. “We kept it to ourselves because it’s just for us.”

“Then why did you bring us here? We don’t want to invade something special.” Tony looks at him, giving him the ‘don’t be a dipshit’ gaze over his glasses.

“This is a place for family and if we’re going to have a wedding, this is the perfect spot for it. Don’t you think, Cap?” Steve is even more confused. “Pepper has already called in a few favors and if you want to do this, it’s all set. Just give me the word and we can make it happen.”

Steve looks back at the smaller cabin that he and Bucky are staying in. Bucky is casing Nat and Clint around with a water gun that he got from god knows where. Thor is sneaking up behind him with a water balloon and Bruce is being held by Pepper with a hand over his mouth to keep him from warning Bucky. When the water balloon strikes its target, Bucky squeals and turns on the god. John is picking up a second water gun to defend his brother-in-law. “Consider the word given.”

Tony turns back to the house, calling loudly. “Pep, it’s a go!”

She fist bumps Becca and runs into the house to make the calls. Clint looks up, dripping and grinning. “Can I call Laura and have her and the kids come out for this? They’ll be really annoyed if they miss Cap getting married.”

Bucky looks up, shocked. “What?”

Steve jogs back over to him, wrapping him up tightly in his arms. “You wanna do this? Pepper and Tony have it all set if you are willing.”

“You’re going to get wet if you keep hugging me like that.” Steve barks a laugh and pulls Bucky closer. “And yeah, I wanna.”

Steve kisses the top of his head. “We’re getting married, Buck.”

Bucky looks up, beaming at Steve. “We get our happy ending.”


End file.
